Exclusive interview with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy

Photos: AP Images

When Phil Murphy ascended the stage at his victory party in November of 2017, it wasn’t just a sprint, but more of a flying leap, perhaps a throwback to his days as a musical theater performer at Harvard University.

But there was something more in the dance move.

Phil Murphy’s story is one of boundless energy, ever since he took a job washing dishes to earn extra money as a high school student in Boston. His parents were “middle-class on a good day” by his own retelling, but they wanted their children to be educated, and all the Murphy children got college degrees. In Phil’s case, it was an economics degree from Harvard and then a master’s degree from Wharton, after which he interned at Goldman Sachs, where he would make his career for the next two decades.

Even back then, he gained a name for his deal-making skills, which he attributed to his willingness to work with people. “Two people may not get along,” he explained, “they don’t like each other and can’t work together. But their mutual dislike is their problem and I don’t let it become mine. I’ll be the man in the middle and the three of us can work something out that everyone is happy with.”

That approach to business — and to life — explains how the Democratic governor with a progressive agenda has a high approval rating in the religious community, and how the man who framed his victory in November 2017 as New Jersey’s answer to Donald Trump found a way to a good working relationship with the 45th president, never devolving into the personal feuds and insult-tossing contests that so many other governors did.

Murphy was heavily involved in Democratic politics during his years at Goldman Sachs. His first governmental position was as President Obama’s ambassador to Germany. His stint there was largely successful, if unremarkable. The closest thing to a whiff of scandal — and if the governor does decide to run for president, the rival campaign’s opposition research team will find it difficult to locate enemies — was when Wikileaks publicized some private, in-house comments the ambassador had made about German government personnel.

It was embarrassing, perhaps a mild diplomatic flap, but Phil Murphy showed a side of him then that would mark him later, as a politician. He went on television, apologized, and made it clear that he didn’t blame his staff or anyone else for the comments getting out. “At the end of the day, the buck stops with me,” he said.

It was the leadership, the candor, and the smile.